East San Jose mentoring program empowers middle schoolers

Alum Rock Counseling Center helps transform adolescents into college-aspiring youths ready to take on the world

They enter painfully shy and frustrated with the hand that life has dealt them, issues that threaten their chances to finish middle school.

But by the time these tender adolescents complete the Alum Rock Counseling Center’s mentoring program, they are literally transformed into college-aspiring, socially outgoing, and often athletic youths ready to take on the world, and help those who were once like them.

Lilly, a freshman at San Francisco State University studying criminal justice with dreams to become a police detective, remembers how just a few years ago she walked the grounds of the Ocala STEAM Academy guarded and withdrawn.

Her mother had broken away from an abusive relationship, and was working hard but struggling to work, attend school and keep a roof over Lilly and her three brothers. Lily felt lost at school, insecure about her English skills and afraid she wasn’t worthy of her teachers’ attention.

It turned out that like many students her age who come from tough backgrounds, what she really needed was someone to listen to her. The ARCC mentoring program filled that crucial void.

“Nowadays a lot of kids don’t have the support they need, and a lot of parents don’t have the time because they’re working,” said Lilly, who asked that her full name be withheld for safety reasons. “As a kid you don’t know who you are, and in the program you deal with kids experiencing the same things as you, so you’re not alone.”

The ARCC program at Ocala provides a medley of services to low-income and at-risk youth in East San Jose, helping students who come from neighborhoods with one of the city’s highest rates of poverty, dropouts, child abuse, domestic violence and juvenile delinquency. Each year, the program offers 60 students academic and emotional support, mentoring, life-skills classes, therapy, parent-engagement help and field trips.

With help from Wish Book, the counseling center is seeking to more than double its current capacity to 135 students.

Ruby Kilgore is an eighth-grader currently enrolled in the mentorship program, and she cherishes the one-on-one attention she receives.

“It’s helped me learn different skills, and learn to communicate,” Ruby said. “The counselors guide you, and you can talk to them about anything.”

Lilly said just having someone around who listens is crucial to students’ success and ability to navigate life and school.

“Looking back, there are so many angry kids, because they didn’t have someone to talk to,” she added. “Honestly, I was so excited to get a mentor and have people to support you. It’s what everyone needs even if they say they don’t.”

Ruby, like many students before entering the program, was shy. She is now a three-year player on the school’s basketball team, and aspires to be an attorney.

Nhat V. Meyer/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

Daniel Gutierrez, a program manager for Alum Rock Counseling Center mentoring program

The transformation is not lost on her father, Maurice Kilgore, who’s raised Ruby and her siblings — including a sister who was also in the program — on his own.

“To see the growth in her is awesome,” Kilgore said. “She carries herself differently. She’s a leader. She’s more mature, more outgoing and talks more. They put so much effort into these kids for them to succeed in life.”

Counselor Libertad Carlos said Ruby’s decision-making, self awareness, and relationships with adults have all flourished in her time with the program. She added that her emphasis on treating the students as critical thinkers allows them to take accountability for themselves.

“Building a rapport with students is huge. It’s all built on trust. They know I believe in them,” Carlos said. “Providing a safe place for students is one of the most basic things we do. If they feel safe with you, they’ll be honest.”

Program manager Daniel Gutierrez said the focus on middle school is predicated on the idea that it is a uniquely formative time in students’ lives.

“These are transformative years,” Gutierrez said. “We’re here to give support they might not be getting at home and in their communities.”

Gutierrez said the program is year-round, and works to keep its students busy during the summer to battle the proverbial “brain drain,” or decrease in academic retention from three idle months. Students are taken on trips to visit local colleges like San Jose State and Santa Clara University, and visit educational landmarks such as the California Academy of Sciences.

They also go on hiking excursions and other outdoor trips that can sometimes be foreign to them because of limited ability to travel beyond the confines of their neighborhoods, Gutierrez said.

“We’re taking kids to their first movie. Some have never been to the beach,” he said. “We’re in perhaps the wealthiest area in the whole country, and they don’t have things that many teens take for granted.”

But above the myriad of activities to keep the students’ minds engaged, Gutierrez echoed the vital component of one-on-one attention that they find elusive in their lives.

“They’re often in multifamily households. They feel they’re being ignored, or that there is no one to listen,” he said.

By the time Lilly completed her time with the ARCC program, she was a star athlete, particularly in wrestling, as well as in cross country, track and cheerleading. She is now pursuing her college degree while balancing two jobs, owns a car and helps support the household finances.

She also remembers her peers who didn’t have her opportunities, some of whom are currently homeless, and wants to get them off the streets and help them turn their lives around. And she has the utmost confidence that she can pull it all off.

“(This program) made me stronger given everything I’ve been through,” Lilly said. “I feel like I can take on anything.”

HOW TO HELP

Donations will support Alum Rock Counseling Center’s Mentoring Program at Ocala STEAM Academy in East San Jose, which provides at-risk middle school students with academic and emotional support to help prevent them from falling into a cycle of school failure and delinquency. Goal: $25,000